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Since the link for the video isn’t working for me, this will have to do…

Satire is used a lot in political cartoons.  Basically, political cartoons = satire.  The cartoonists have an opinion on a political issue, which is generally a common perspective, and illustrates their opinion through a cartoon.  There’s a video online that I never get tired of watching because it’s so funny, but I definitely think there’s a satiric backdrop to it. http://www.killsometime.com/animations/animation.asp?ID=153 This is a great cartoon because it targets teenagers, who are the leaders of tomorrow.  It gets the message across, which is that nukes are bad.  No matter how badly we want to be the most powerful, if the earth isn’t destroyed due to natural disasters, we will blow the earth up. 

I thought the article we read in class today was very interesting and I’m surprised about Bush’s reaction to it.  Based on what Mr. Olmstead told us in class, he basically dismissed the Iraq Study Groups suggestions.  Their approaches as to what to do in Iraq make sense and would probably make a lot of Americans feel more secure knowing that the U.S. has plans and isn’t just a sitting duck in Iraq.  Most Americans would rather not be in Iraq right now, but since we are we can’t just pull out.  The U.S. is in too deep, which makes it so that U.S. troops can only get out when Iraq is stable without their presence.  The External Approach the Iraq Study Group mentioned is important because America can’t, and shouldn’t, be the only nation trying to improve conditions in Iraq.  It might be more difficult to come up with a plan as to how to approach Iraq with nations working together, but the end solution will be much more reasonable with more input. 

I found an article about Saudi Arabia and the Sunnis and Shi’ites.  There are more articles you can read about Iraq as well. http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/12/13/saudi.sunnis/index.html

Everyone tries to defend minorities, especially those of different races, but do they really?  On one occassion you can find someone claiming not to be racist, but at another point in time find them making a racist slur.  At GHS we have a fairly diverse student body, but that doesn’t prevent anyone from being racist.  I think stereotypes lead to many cases of racism.  The article that I found is about a muslim charity asking the court to dismiss their charges of having ties with terrorists.  The stereotype would be that people from the middle east are terrorists.  Just because this is a stereotype doesn’t make it true, but I found a quote that I thought assumes the stereotype to be true:

“Lawyers for the Texas-based Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development based the request on a ruling last month by a federal judge in Los Angeles, who struck down President Bush’s authority to designate groups as terrorists.” 

 The part I want to point out is when it says “struck down President Bush’s authority to designate groups as terrorists.”  It can be taken casually, but it could also be implied that Bush feels he has the knowledge to decide if a group of people are terrorists or not.  Thinking about it, there must be requirements that would cause a group to be classified as a terrorist group, but my first impression was that Bush knew who could be called a terrorist and who was not.

People like satire so much because it’s real.  Real and serious social issues are brought up in movies like Borat.  While sitting back watching the movie, it’s interesting to see how the “actors” react to certain situations.  At the same time, it’s also interesting to see how the movie-goers react to whats happening on the screen.  People are so interested in satire because everyone contributes to it.  In some way or another, you are apart of what makes satire.  It’s bearable to watch because it’s funny and doesn’t always appear serious at first glance, but the underlying message is there and available for the audience to learn from.